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May 1995, Week 5

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Sender:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
From:
Krin Gabbard <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 28 May 1995 08:21:36 CDT
Reply-To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
               State University of New York at Stony Brook
                       Stony Brook, NY 10025
 
                                            Krin Gabbard
                                            Associate Professor
                                            Comparative Literature
                                            212 749-1631
                                            27-May-1995 04:41pm EDT
FROM:  KGABBARD
TO:    Remote Addressee                     ( [log in to unmask] )
 
Subject: Re: Interracial Romance
 
 
 
While doing some work on the 1961 film _Paris Blues_, I ran
across a number of sources that say the film was originally
supposed to include a romance between Paul Newman and Diahann
Carroll.  Duke Ellington canceled several months worth
of appearances and flew to Paris to do the music for the film
because he liked the idea of interracial romance.  Shortly after
shooting began, however, the money men at United Artists chickened
out and insisted that the couples be color-coded according to
less controversial standards.  Producer Sam Shaw says that he and
director Martin Ritt were prepared to go with the original plan
but that they were overruled.  Thomas Cripps has a few words
about the situation in _Making Movies Black_, and Mercer
Ellington refers to it in passing in his biography of his father,
_Duke Ellington in Person_.
 
As far as I know, actual interracial romance was not depicted
with any sincerity until the independent film _One Potato Two
Potato_ in 1964.  The major studios allowed Sidney Poitier to get
close to Elizabeth Hartman in _A Patch of Blue_ in 1965, but a
full-blown romance doesn't happen until _Guess Who's Coming to
Dinner_ in 1967.  Are there relevant films here that I have
overlooked?
 
Krin Gabbard
SUNY Stony Brook

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